Posts by cosmicjackal33

Look...

We have to be real here: Washington, D.C. is just too inexperienced.
I watched the whole game on ESPN, and honestly, the John Doe goalkeeper robbed them at least 10 times on wide-open shots. On the flip side, Stephen Curry and Small fry were absolutely useless.
Patrick Mahomes and Klay Thompson have insane potential, though.
Someone needs to get Klay Thompson's act together because the guy has a shot like you rarely see...
It wasn't like the whole thing completely fell apart, though...

35-28 for John Doe

It all came down to the goalkeepers.

Terzić is a straight-up generational talent.
His shooting is a little shaky right now, though, especially when he's forced to take shots from questionable spots.
Even Balić didn't have much of a shot selection back in his early days, so there's plenty of room for Terzić to level up his game.

And honestly, I had no clue the guy was actually from Mexico...

George Martin70 said:I just tried downloading the Mirko and Silva fight from Mega, but it's totally broken. No video at all, just some audio of Japanese guys talking in the background... 🤔

Just grab some new codecs...

Of course things are about to get absolutely brutal...

Look... Cervar really dropped the ball during this Euro tournament.
And honestly, I’m questioning if even finishing 4th was a total fail.
The guy has barely scraped into the semifinals in five major tournaments in a row now.
Just think back to those five big events before this one.

Once again... despite making the semis... Cervar messed up. Anyone who actually follows handball knows that.
We’re better than both the Frenchmen and the Danes. There's no debate there.
But... we all know where the real issue lies. It isn't even Vori playing wing. The problem is we have zero backup for Metličić... and let's be real, Balić and Pero make up about 70% of this squad.
If Metličić has an off night, we're cooked... and when a player is grinding out 60 minutes for seven straight games, the math says he's going to hit a wall right at the finish line... especially since we know Pero is splitting time with Stefansson at the club level, so playing 60 minutes here is basically double his usual workload.

Either way... if we don't beef up the bench, we're just waiting for another late-game collapse.

Then again... these losses by our national team aren't exactly a disaster. Even the Spaniards were heavy favorites against the French, and they still got absolutely schooled...

frozentiger6 said:And that World Cup? It's a joke. You don't seriously think Smajlagic is to blame for that. Or anyone else. The World Cup is a big deal.

Then why didn't Cervar go if this tournament is such a massive deal? Besides, you watched the games—our guys were dragging themselves around like dying fish, playing just because they had to...

Look... your habit of downplaying Cervar is pretty obvious by now, but regardless of what people think, he’s the greatest coach in the history of our handball. Anyone claiming otherwise isn't thinking straight. In 2002 we were dead last at the European Championship, then in 2003 and 2004 we became World Cup winners and took home Olympic gold with basically the exact same roster we had when we were bottom-feeders. Amen.
I also think Cervar might be riding some dangerous ego trip that's hurting the national team, but forcing some totally unproven coach onto us based on journalistic gossip like "hey, I heard from that guy that Smajlagic is running the training sessions during camp" makes zero sense to me.
At the end of the day, Smajlagic is just an assistant with zero coaching experience under his belt. Jendo did the U-18 European Championship, but that's a different league than the Champions Cup, the Olympics, the World Cup, or the European Championship.

It was the same way people talked about Queiroz in soccer, and when Queiroz actually had to step up and prove himself, he completely choked.
Anyway... regarding the World Cup... I don't buy the argument that our guys were just wandering aimlessly around the court. Because if you use that logic, you could say the same thing about the World Cup final, or the games against Russia, Denmark, and France at this European Championship where they looked just as lost...
Of course... when we played in the Champions Cup final, nobody called it a joke. It's only a joke when we get absolutely demolished by the same teams that crush us like little kids in the actual major tournaments...

It’s pretty obvious we're looking at a lost generation.

But man... even Balićev's crew was absolute garbage back in their junior days.

frozentiger6 said:The guys are missing wide-open shots, and Ćupić misses an empty net... what more can the coach even do at this point?

First thing's first—stop playing him.
I’m pretty sure you’d agree with me on that one.

btw..
What’s the name of that Zamet U-18 winger (basically a clone of Džomba)? I saw the kid during preseason in San Diego. He’s absolutely tearing it up. Forget Ćupić...

frozentiger6 said:Smajo just cruised through the league with a different squad.

It’s not Smajo's fault if the top player on this roster isn't even good enough to sit on the bench at Whirlpool, let alone they're forcing him out, and the rest of the team is just talented enough to blow every single lead...

They lose a game against a team that doesn't even have their starting pivot or their strongest back ever stepped on the court.

Don't give me that.
Smajo was lucky because the U-18 national team happened to have the best handball player in the world on their side.
Just let me coach an U-18 team with Duvnjak on the roster and we'll be walking away with gold without breaking a sweat. 😬

But with this current national team, where you actually need decent coaching to match the talent, we end up facing these kinds of embarrassments.
We all know how Smajlagić handled the national team during the Scandinavian Cup and the World Cup.

Besides.. if Duvnjak were playing for the U-20s, they probably would've cruised to gold there too. With or without Pipeta...

Edward Booth6 said:I don't get how they manage to blow a 15-4 lead in the second half??????

What are they even doing???

They completely choked.
The players and the coach included.
We've seen how Smajlagić reacts when the senior team is losing. It’s pathetic. He just stands there staring blankly at the court...

P.S.

S. Ljubo is serving for the match in Cincinnati. 🙂

20-24
What kind of pathetic joke of a squad calls itself a national team? They went out and posted a 4-15 disaster in the second half.
And who’s running the show? That "world-class" expert Smajo?
That tells you everything you need to know about his value.

20-22

Way to go, boys.

WC 2009 in America.

That’s where Balic is gonna hand the torch over to Duvnja.

Looking at Duvnja’s stats, it’s obvious he’s playing on a completely different level than anyone else his age.
It’s basically like watching someone drop 40 points and 15 assists a game in the NBA...

But you gotta admit, the kid's stats are pretty insane.

Duvanjak is basically the LeBron James of handball. 🙂

Hell yeah, obviously.

hip